Southampton Town To Purchase 3.8 Acres on Highway in Water Mill for Affordable Housing

Southampton Town has an agreement to purchase 3.8 acres of land off Montauk Highway just east of Southampton Village for use as an affordable housing development.

The property, which is across the highway from Pumpkintown, will be purchased by the town with $4.3 million from the town’s Community Housing Fund and transferred to the Town of Southampton Housing Authority, a quasi-public organization created to develop and manage housing projects for the town.

The Housing Authority has already put out a request for proposals and reached an agreement to work with Georgica Green Ventures, the development company that has partnered with local municipalities on several affordable housing projects in Southampton and East Hampton towns. The company specializes in navigating the complex state-managed tax credit system that is the anchor of funding for the development of most housing developments that will be offered at a below-market rental or sale rates.

Housing Authority Executive Director Curtis Highsmith said the authority and Georgica Green have not yet settled on the density or type of housing that will be developed on the land and will be compiling a needs analysis and yield study of the property in the coming months before announcing plans for the property.

“We will come up with a plan and have a community discussion about what our concept is,” Highsmith said this week. “We want to do it smartly.”

The land is currently owned by the Euell Family Trust and is zoned for residential development in 1.5-acre minimum lot sizes. The lot had been listed for sale with an asking price of $4.75 million and advertised as subdividable into two building lots.

The property, which is technically in Water Mill, will be the second outright purchase of land for an affordable housing development using the CHF revenues, which are generated by a half-percent sales tax on most residential real estate sales.

In July, the town announced plans to purchase two lots near the intersection of Moses Lane and Magee Street that it would combine with a parcel the town already owned and had long had affordable housing plans for.

At Tuesday night’s Town Board meeting, town lawmakers who had disagreed early in the evening over whether the town should align itself with New York State’s Pro-Housing Community Program, uniformly applauded the Water Mill purchase.

“I think this is a great use of our CHF funds,” Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara said. “And it is worth noting that because we are using CHF money instead of state grants, we can perpetually keep this affordable in perpetuity.”

“We’re very excited about this property,” Supervisor Maria Moore added. “And the community is in favor of it, too, so it’s a win-win-win.”